FUN FACTS:Favorite run: Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, Minn., where she set her personal record of 2:45:42Hardest run: the 24-hour run

Eric Oliver

In 2012, nearly a half-million Americans put on a pair of running shoes to run the 26.2 miles that makes up an official marathon, according to Running USA.

For most, running the distance once or a few times is enough. But Carolyn Smith, director of the Marquette University Medical Clinic, Milwaukee, frequently runs three times that on a regular basis. She is part of a rare type of runner known as the “ultramarathoner.”

Growing up close to the Rock River and a bike path in Rockford, Ill., Smith, 48, frequently found herself running. She ran her first race, an all-women’s three-miler, at age 13 and had immediate success.

“I’ve run probably close to 30 marathons and 25 ultramarathons,” Smith said. “It is a little nutty.”

Her running career started small in high school where she ran the mile and two-mile races as a member of the track team. It grew through college at the University of Wisconsin-Madison when she participated in track and ran her first marathon, then evolved into ultras after being part of a run support staff for a friend who was doing a three-day, 150-mile run across Illinois.

“I thought, ‘hey, these are really interesting people and this is a really interesting event,’ so I decided to run the Ice Age Trail as my first ultra,” Smith said.

After the Ice Age Trail Ultra in southern Wisconsin, Smith continued to compete in a variety of events. Highlights include seven international appearances for team USA in the 100k World Championships held at various sites, including one gold medal win, and the successful completion of the Badwater 135 ultramarathon through California’s Death Valley as well as a 24-hour race.

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